This tournament celebrated the 200th
anniversary of the USAs Declaration of Independence. The USA team of
the time was not strong enough to compete against sides as powerful as
Brazil, Italy and England, and hence Team America, consisting of
players of various nationalities drawn from North American Soccer League clubs,
carried the USA banner in the tournament. Team America included
players who had performed for other
national teams, among them Pele, Ramon Mifflin, Mike England, Giorgio Chinaglia
and Bobby Moore.

The day after England played Team America, the Football
Association, asked about the match's status, said it was regarded as
"a training game" and that caps would not be awarded to the
participating players. Accordingly, the F.A. did not include the
match in its list of full internationals. The associations of both
Brazil and Italy, on the other hand, listed their national sides' matches
against Team America as full internationals. Matches against Team America
would not meet the new standard FIFA set down in January 2001 for
official full internationals because they were not played between the
selections of two FIFA country members. FIFA has retroactively
removed the official status of matches involving other multinational all-star selections, including
England's matches against the Rest of Europe and the Rest of the World
(although
the F.A. continues to
recognise these as official internationals).

Ron Hockings & Keir Radnedge, Nations of Europe,
vol. 2, p. 24 (1993)
has the Team America vs. Italy match played at Yankee Stadium in New
York City, but the official Federazione
Italiana Giuoco Calcio website, the Rete! website and Libreria dello Sport, Maglie Azzurre: Nomi, cifre
e date delle nazionali italiane, p. 99 (1996), all have it played at Robert F. Kennedy
Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Maglie
Azzurre, p. 99, has the attendance at the England vs. Italy match as 47,000, while Nations
of Europe, p. 194, has it as 40,650, and Mike Payne, England: The Complete
Post-War Record, pp. 197-98 (1993), as 40,750.